England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916-2005

This is an index of marriage registers for England and Wales for all years indicated. Images are only available through 1983. The collection only indexes records, but the volume and page number can be used to order a copy of the original certificate.

Country-wide civil registration of births, marriages and deaths commenced on 1 July 1837 in England and Wales. Registration took place at local civil registrars who in turn reported to the Registrar General at the General Register Office (GRO) in London. This national index to vital records is an essential source of genealogical information for family historians.

Since the original birth, marriage and death registers are not open to the public, getting access to the information on one of these certificates is done by first searching the national birth, marriage and death indexes that have been created by the GRO for this purpose. The indexes for the three events are divided into volumes by year following which entries are listed alphabetically. Once an entry in one of the indexes is found, you are then able to use that information to order a copy of a death, marriage or birth certificate from the GRO. Information that can be obtained from the marriage index includes:

• Full name of individual
• Surname of spouse
• Month and year of registration
• Registration district (each county in England and Wales was divided up into registration districts.
• Jurisdictions are organized and appear as they existed at the time the record was created)
• Inferred county (the county is inferred based on what counties the registration district covered)
• Volume number
• Page number

Note: The district listed is the district where the event was registered, not necessarily the location where the event actually occurred.